UK national newspapers join Google Fast Flip

Google's JPEG viewer wins new converts

Google has just added 55 new publications to its Fast Flip experimental news application that lets users quickly flip through online news stories, including UK national newspapers the Telegraph, the Independent and the Express.

Google has outlined the latest moves relating to Fast Flip in a company blog post boasting that Flip now features around 90 publications in total.

Clara Armand-Delille, Google's communications and public affairs manager, said: "We continue to engage with publishers on a regular basis, to find out first-hand how we can work together to tackle some of the challenges of the online world from a technological perspective."

Visually appealing

Put simply, Fast Flip is a lot more visual than most news aggregators and RSS feed-readers. You see screenshots of relevant articles instead of headlines, and you can choose to click on the screenshot to go directly to the webpage in question, which you can then choose to email or share with friends or colleagues.

"We're pleased to be part of this experiment aimed at improving the reader's engagement with our journalism, by using technology to give readers a broader view of our content, delivering the important benefit of wider awareness of the 'news' - rather like flicking through a newspaper," says Will Lewis, the Telegraph Media Group digital managing director and editor-in-chief.

The Independent's Jimmy Leach, editorial director for the digital, said: "There's lots of talk about the future for online newspapers, and we're all feeling our way to different answers. There are no certainties, but having more readers can only be a good thing and we're happy to experiment with Google and Fast Flip as a way of drawing in more readers, making our brand more accessible to people and making the experience of reading our content a more enjoyable one. It'll be very interesting to see where it takes us."

The Daily Express' group internet controller Farzad Jamal, noted: "We're participating in Fast Flip because we want to explore as many ways as possible to make our content available both to our regular readers, as well as reaching new potential readers."